Anacharis going down hill.

[Blown 346]

My 30 gallon hex has been setup now for about 3 months. Everything else is doing great.
I had a tiny looking stalk of anacharis that has been in the tank since day one. It has more than quad drupled in size and is doing fine. The problem is with my new batch of anacharis.

I added it 4 days ago or so, and it was nice and green full,thick and healthy. Now it looks as if the leaves are starting to turn to mush and fall off almost looking transparent. The first stalk of Anacharis is still doing fine with no changes.


Here are the specs.

30 gallon hex
Marineland filter 200 GPH
3 watts a gallon of light on for 8 hours a day.
Pressurized C02 daily for 8 hours at 2 BPS.
Flourite substrate

Livestock

3 Anubias nana that are growing and sprouting new leaves everyday
2 Amazon swords Doing great
1 old anacharis Doing great
6 new Anacharis stems that arent doing well
3 Rotala verticillaris Starting to loose some needles.


12 Neon tetra's
6 male Guppies
5 Ottos
3 Cories

I dose Flourish half a capful once a week.
What could be casuing this?

[rich311k]

With your setup it should be coming out of the tank quickly. Maybe it is adjusting to your water. I assume you do not use excel?

[Blown 346]

I dont dose excel, just Flourish. Does Anacharis adjust this way?

[Blown 346]

???

[KarlTh]

What is the GH? It doesn't do well in extremely soft water, IME.

[Star_Rider]

1 old stalk doing great and new ones not?

a couple things... new anacharis may be adjusting to the tank(yes it may die back some)
it is also a nutrient hog. how are the nitrate?

[icemanx23]

Large water change to reset the nutrients level if other plants are suffering. If not, the plant maybe adjusting. Just wait till u see new shoots and when the shoots are long enough cut them and replant.

[Mgamer20o0]

Large water change to reset the nutrients level if other plants are suffering. If not, the plant maybe adjusting. Just wait till u see new shoots and when the shoots are long enough cut them and replant.
if its a fert thing large wc really wont reset anything. i would guess its adjusting or you might need to start adding nitrates. test your water and get back to us.

[Blown 346]

I do not have soft water. The GH is 20ppm if not a little higher. My test kit says to add one drop and the water should turn Pink, it did. If it turns blue the GH is below 20ppm. Hardness is fine.

The Nitrate is about 15 PPM.

I do a 10 gallon water change once a week and gravel vac. I just started gravel vaccing last week for the first time. I pulled up alot of dark brown water. Could I be removing nutrients the plants need by cleaning the gravel once a week?

The stems of the new plants are real grean and still look healthy.

[Blown 346]

ttt

[Blown 346]

Today I noticed a few stems have lost there color and are almost clear looking. They were falling apart and I asuume dead.

[Blown 346]

Could I not have enought ferts?

[ib4walrus]

I had the exact same issue from the anacharis that I bought a couple of weeks ago.
It was looking well for a couple of days but then started to brown, then turned transparent and leaves easily fell off and were mushy soft.
:confused: Confused as well about what caused it, I thought this was an "easy" plant?

[Blown 346]

I think I dont have enough ferts. If that was the case why is my 1 doing well?

[KarlTh]

20ppm GH is extremely low - it's around 1 degree. I think this may not be helping. Moderate GH is 150-250ppm; high 300+

Your water is very soft.

[Blown 346]

How can I harden it up? My test kit only states it should be within this color.

[KarlTh]

What are the KH and pH like? If the water's acid with low KH, then a bit of crushed coral will raise all three.

[Nora]

I came upon this thread as anacharis is one of the two plants I keep in multiple tanks - I also noticed that you're in Rockford,IL, that added to the it's only the new plant make me question cold exposure prior to tank placement, I had a batch go soft, then clearish pale green to mush brown rather fast after it was left in the car in the cold. May not even have been while it was in your custody - perhaps in delivery to wherever you got it from? Just some thoughts as all of your other plants are doing well, including more anacharis, but I am by no means an expert.

[Blown 346]

20ppm GH is extremely low - it's around 1 degree. I think this may not be helping. Moderate GH is 150-250ppm; high 300+

Your water is very soft.

I have a Hagen test kit. It says its above 20mg. It doent give a very accurate reading. I only have a chart to compare color to.

[Blown 346]

What are the KH and pH like? If the water's acid with low KH, then a bit of crushed coral will raise all three.


The pH is 7.6
the KH is normal as far as the color matches up. It says its above 10 ppm.

[Blown 346]

I came upon this thread as anacharis is one of the two plants I keep in multiple tanks - I also noticed that you're in Rockford,IL, that added to the it's only the new plant make me question cold exposure prior to tank placement, I had a batch go soft, then clearish pale green to mush brown rather fast after it was left in the car in the cold. May not even have been while it was in your custody - perhaps in delivery to wherever you got it from? Just some thoughts as all of your other plants are doing well, including more anacharis, but I am by no means an expert.


When bagged by the girl it didnt have alot of water in it, maybe 2 inches and I walked around the store for 20 minutes before I headed out. 40 minutes later before the plants hit my tank.

I am sure the problem with my Rotala, and Lugwigia falling apart was from low potassium and Iron. I bought some leaf zone to help out. I am waiting on a the store to get a bottle of Magnesium. Hopefully the leaf Zone will help out make them perk up.

[mr.key]

There are are a couple of different plants that are sold as anacharis and that are generally difficult to distinguish from one another. I am also in Illinois (Chicago burbs) and I would say that most of the anacharis I have bought is garbage. From various hobbyists I have received the plant as well and those generally do very well. I am somewhat concerned that the tank is not balanced well as with your setup I would think that the nitrates would be much lower and the plants very happy. I'm not sure you are reading that test kit properly from the numbers you are giving though.

[KarlTh]

Again, 10ppm is extremely low KH. There is no "normal"; I wonder if you're misunderstanding the tests. You drop the reagent in, counting the drops until the colour change occurs. On most liquid tests each drop is 20ppm (GH) or 10ppm (KH). Knowing "above 10ppm" or "above 20ppm" would be pointless as 99% of water samples from anywhere in the world would be, and it doesn't tell you whether the water's hard or soft. "Normal" is anywhere from 60-300ppm. Below 60ppm is soft to very soft; your water is very soft on both, if the colour change occurs almost immediately. But your pH of 7.6 doesn't quite fit, so I'm beginning to wonder.

You are adding reagent until the colour change occurs, rather than just adding one drop and reporting that there's colour change, aren't you?

Hagen instructions here: http://forum.aquatic-gardeners.org/viewtopic.php?t=707&sid=e2eee670222a290362c3a57e7b8fb2e5

[Blown 346]

Again, 10ppm is extremely low KH. There is no "normal"; I wonder if you're misunderstanding the tests. You drop the reagent in, counting the drops until the colour change occurs. On most liquid tests each drop is 20ppm (GH) or 10ppm (KH). Knowing "above 10ppm" or "above 20ppm" would be pointless as 99% of water samples from anywhere in the world would be, and it doesn't tell you whether the water's hard or soft. "Normal" is anywhere from 60-300ppm. Below 60ppm is soft to very soft; your water is very soft on both, if the colour change occurs almost immediately. But your pH of 7.6 doesn't quite fit, so I'm beginning to wonder.

You are adding reagent until the colour change occurs, rather than just adding one drop and reporting that there's colour change, aren't you?

Hagen instructions here: http://forum.aquatic-gardeners.org/viewtopic.php?t=707&sid=e2eee670222a290362c3a57e7b8fb2e5


I added one drop and the color changed to blue immediatly. The test directions say... If the color chaged to pink add one drop until it changes to blue, and multiply the drops to determine the ppm.


I am adding only one drop and the color changes to blue so I stop and compare to the color chart.

[KarlTh]

OK. You are using the tests correctly, and your water is supersoft - an immediate colour change means 20ppm (or 10ppm for KH) or less. You don't have to compare it with the colour chart; the important thing is how many drops it takes to change colour - it's not like other tests which have different colours for different results.

Water this soft will be short of calcium, magnesium or both. I would be inclined to buy some african cichlid salts; don't add the full amount though, just enough to get the GH to around 100ppm. That will guarantee sufficient minerals. Epsom salts would also raise GH, but they only contain magnesium and plants require calcium as well.

[Blown 346]

OK,Is the African Cichlid salt like Aquarium salt? Or are the two different? Will this raise the Salinity of the water or just harden it up.

[KarlTh]

It's different. Aquarium salt is just NaCl, sold on the back of a clever confidence trick. African Cichlid salts contain very little or no NaCl and harden the water without increasing the salinity.